This is the last of the AHA posts. Next week – back to wine and wine reviews! In fact, watch on Monday for a cool Riesling review, complete with multi-media.

At the pro-brewer night, there were over 20 breweries serving over 75 different beers. This brave blogger attempted to try them all, but sadly my notes slowly degraded over the night. Most of what I can make out is that all the beers were good, but most of my notes seem to concentrate on updating our top three selections from across the different breweries. So I present the top three from both Michelle and myself.

We learned a lot about the use of brettanomyces (brett) in beer. In wine, brett is often accidental and not wanted (although it can be used judiciously). It can often cause a barnyard flavor in the wine. We were surprised to find it used in several beers, most notably from Goose Island and Jolly Pumpkin. Jolly Pumpkin specialized in using brett, lending a purposefully sour note to their beers. Michelle, however, accustomed to some poor uses of brett in wine, had trouble getting past the aroma. Not so with the Goose Island Matilda, a reserve beer that uses brett without cultivating the sour. It all added to a full and complex beer.

Looking at the list, I was apparently in the mood for a dark heavy beer, while Michelle was looking at the lighter summery offerings. Sadly, neither of us were able to try all the beers offered, but I think we covered a good amount between the two of us. I’d also like to thank New Holland for providing an extremely full final glass of Dragon’s Milk to close out my night once they learned I was not driving.